Letter to the Editor about SB 136

Our supporter Wayne wrote a letter to the editor that was simply too good not to share, so here it is:

Dear Speaker Jasper and Representatives of the NH House:

I humbly request that you support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, which gives corporations and labor unions free rein to anonymously spend as much money as they wish to achieve their desired political outcome, effectively buying and controlling government. This, in my eyes, is tantamount to sanctioned bribery on a very large scale.

I’m confident that you’re fully aware of the NH Senate having recently passed a bill (SB136) which calls on the U.S. Congress to draft a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. I am urging the NH House to pass SB136, which would make NH the 17th state to support this vital amendment, so the people’s voice can be heard and we can rescue our democracy from the clutches of oligarchy.

While you give consideration to my request, I would like to share the following brief anecdote with you from Doris “Granny D” Haddock’s diary, Granny D: Walking Across America in My 90th Year in which she discusses a short detour from her walk to attend the 10/13/1999 U.S. Senate Debate, on Capitol Hill, of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill, which ended up being filibustered by Sen. Mitch McConnell: “Naturally, I stopped by the offices of my two New Hampshire Senators. Bob Smith said he couldn’t support the bill (nor did Judd Gregg) and that he wasn’t too worried that the folks back home would even care. He said the general public is too dumb to understand about money and politics. I have witnesses that he said that. At the end of the brief meeting, he stood and shook my hand. He said he had a great deal of respect for what I was doing. I said I wished I could say the same.”

Honorable Speaker and Representatives, I wish to tell you that my fellow NH citizens and I are neither naïve, nor too dumb to understand the relationship between money and politics and ask that you take action by passing this on to our representatives in the U.S. Congress.